By the Book

Despite hanging on by a thread, and the cries of many a Concordia student, I’m back for another year of “insight” and “thoughtful” opinions in a column I like to call By the Book. Sorry. Classes have just begun, and the seasons have not even started, and that means that renewed optimism is back at Concordia.

Despite hanging on by a thread, and the cries of many a Concordia student, I’m back for another year of “insight” and “thoughtful” opinions in a column I like to call By the Book. Sorry.

Classes have just begun, and the seasons have not even started, and that means that renewed optimism is back at Concordia. And why not? Every team is tied for first place and every team has the goal of finishing there as well.

For those of you just starting your education at Concordia, welcome aboard. And to those of you back for more, welcome back. I am now in my second full year, and sixth semester as one of the Sports Editors at The Concordian and with that experience, I have learned a lot, both from my mistakes and from things that I have done well.

With that in mind, here are my goals for the Sports section for the 2006-2007 school year.

There will be a serious attempt to cover each and every game played by every team at this University. Although circumstances make it hard to do so I will do my very best to make sure every team is well represented.

There will also be several new features in this section as I am trying to improve every week. One of the things we are most proud of is going back to Concordia’s past, even as far back as the Loyola Warriors and Sir George Williams Georgians to do a “Where are they now?” feature on members of the University’s Hall of Fame. Look for this to start in the coming weeks.

Go Maroon and Gold!

The start of the exciting fall season, including football, baseball, rugby and soccer, is set to begin in the next few days, and there are reasons for all of the Concordia teams to be optimistic this upcoming season, and plenty of reasons for you to go out and support them at Loyola Field.

Starting with the men’s rugby team as they try to defend their surprising Quebec Championship from a year ago, and have several key members back for another run at the title. With a returning cast of several champions from a year ago, and a new off-season conditioning program, look for them to compete for the crown again.

From there we go to the women’s rugby team where a mix of newcomers and key veterans, including last year’s Concordia female rookie-of-the-year Ali Olshefsky, look poised to take on and beat the best in the Quebec conference and better their season from a year ago.

The men’s and women’s soccer teams have a new look to them, but both will use a mix of rookies and veterans to make a run towards the playoffs and beyond. Female Most Valuable Player and second-team All-Canadian Melanie Poirier will lead the Lady Bees along with Erica Geertsen and Julie Pawlusiak who head coach Jorge Sanchez is expecting big things from.

The men’s team and long-standing coach, Vladimir Pavlicik, will again be looking at a young roster this season, and there is no reason to believe that this season will not be an improvement over last year’s less-than-stellar one. They will emphasize a team game and are looking towards re-establishing their spot in the playoffs.

The baseball team lead by Howard Schwartz is looking to overcome losing several key veterans from their team a year ago, and looking towards newcomers to extend their lives in the playoffs from a first-round sweep a year ago. Health will be key as injuries to the pitching staff left them weak in the stretch run.

The team is looking towards a major shakeup with 14 new players and three new coaches from a year ago.

That leaves the football team, and returning starters Pat Donovan, Canada’s top defensive player from a year ago, and Scott Syvret, Quebec’s top player from a year ago, to lead the Stingers to the Vanier Cup in Saskatchewan this Fall. Concordia is looking to defeat both or either Laval and the Universit

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